Paul Warfield is shown here before his junior season at Ohio State in 1962. / Photo courtesy of OSU Photo Archives

Paul Warfield at Ohio State.

Paul Warfield is shown here before his senior year in 1963. / Courtesy of OSU Photo Archives

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WARREN — Paul Warfield just seemed too quiet to be one of football’s greatest players. However, his shy demeanor couldn’t mute his talent.

When Warren Harding coach Gene Slaughter handed the ball to his junior right halfback, magic ensued. Warfield scored three touchdowns in the second game of the 1958 season at Canton McKinley, and soon the entire state was transfixed by his explosiveness.

“Warfield is easily the best back in Ohio,” Bulldogs coach Jim Robinson said.

The Raiders compiled a 7-2-1 record and were 11th in the final state poll. Warfield set a school record for juniors with 92 points. He averaged 8.1 yards per carry while gaining 810 yards and scoring 15 touchdowns. Seven scores were from more than 35 yards (58, 67, 58, 80, 45, 40 and 36).

“Paul Warfield is the best high school halfback in America,” Slaughter said before the 1959 season. “He does things that no other high school back can do.”

Warfield’s first touch that season was a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, beginning the big-play barrage. Warren Harding fashioned an 8-2 record and was 14th in the final state poll.

Warfield scored 13 TDs — 10 of them from more than 45 yards out (90, 45, 79, 67, 69, 72, 84, 45, 52 and 57 yards). He finished with 1,158 yards (7.8 ypc.), and was named first-team All-Ohio. Warfield also captured the state’s Best Back Award.

He chose Ohio State among 70 scholarship offers, and was the original version of Ted Ginn Jr. — pulling away from would-be tacklers with an easy stride.

As a sophomore in 1961, Warfield was a starter, but not a star. Ohio State staggered to a 7-7 tie with TCU in the opener. Against UCLA in his second game, Warfield put the Buckeyes on top to stay in the fourth quarter with a 13-yard TD run.

He ripped off a 35-yard TD romp in a blowout of Illinois, added a pair of scoring runs at Wisconsin, and caught a TD pass at Indiana. At ninth-ranked Michigan, No. 2 Ohio State rolled to a 50-20 victory. Warfield had 132 yards on six carries, contributing a 69-yard TD run, a 48-yard run and a 70-yard catch.

The Buckeyes were 8-0-1 and proclaimed national champions by the Football Writers Association of America. Unfortunately, Ohio State’s faculty council rejected the Rose Bowl bid, and AP voters later shuffled the Buckeyes behind Alabama in the final poll.

“Paul is the most graceful athlete we have ever had, and he certainly was a complete football player,” coach Woody Hayes said. “He played both offense and defense.”

Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in the 1962 preseason poll, and started strong. Warfield scored two touchdowns, including a 42-yard TD catch in the 41-7 season-opening win against North Carolina. However, losses to UCLA, Northwestern and Iowa torpedoed the season. Warfield also showed his wares as a defensive back by limiting Wisconsin’s 6-foot-6 star Pat Richter to two catches in the Badgers only loss. Warfield’s 75-yard TD dash at Indiana belongs on the school’s all-time highlight reel.

The Buckeyes finished strong, pounding once-beaten Oregon and again smashing Michigan, 28-0. Ohio State was 6-3 and 13th in the final polls as Warfield took All-Big Ten honors.

In the 1963 debut, he had 85 yards rushing to power Ohio State to a 17-0 victory against Texas A&M. But again losses — to USC, Illinois and Penn State — sidetracked the campaign. Warfield’s interception clinched a 13-10 upset at second-ranked Wisconsin, and he snagged a 35-yard TD pass just before halftime to fuel a 14-10 win at Michigan. The Buckeyes were 5-3-1 and tied for second in the conference.

For his career, Warfield gained 1,047 yards (5.5 ypc.) and caught 39 passes for 525 yards and six touchdowns. As a senior, he again was named a first-team All-Big Ten performer and a Time Magazine All-American.

The Cleveland Browns selected Warfield with the 11th pick in the NFL draft, and the pros were aware of him from the start. He drew double coverage in his first game. His best 1964 outing came against Green Bay. He had seven catches for 126 yards and TDs of 48 and 19 yards in a 28-21 victory.

“Mildly sensational,” Packers coach Vince Lombardi said of the wonder from Warren.

Warfield was the perfect balance to Jim Brown’s power in the backfield. As a rookie, he caught 52 passes for 920 yards (17.7 avg.) and nine touchdowns to make the Pro Bowl. Meanwhile, the Browns won the NFL championship.

He made two more Pro Bowls, in 1968 and 1969, before Cleveland traded him to Miami for the right to draft Purdue’s Mike Phipps. It worked out for Warfield. In 1971, he had 43 catches for 996 yards (23.2 yards per catch), 11 touchdowns and played in the Super Bowl. The following year, the Dolphins won it and went undefeated in the process.

His pro career stretched 14 years and his NFL stats included 427 receptions for 8,565 yards and 85 touchdowns. His incredible average of 20.1 yards per catch ranks among the best in history.

Warfield was a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer in 1983, and also is a member of the National High School Hall of Fame. His athletic wizardry moved author Hunter S. Thompson to prose.

“There is no more beautiful sight in football than watching Paul Warfield float out of the backfield on a sort of angle-streak pattern right into the heart of a ‘perfect’ zone defense and take a softly thrown pass on his hip, without even seeming to notice the arrival of the ball, and then float another 60 yards into the end zone, with none of the frustrated defensive backs ever touching him,” Thompson wrote.